Five-car crash interrupts first practice at Daytona

Daytona Beach, FL (Sports Network) - A five-car crash occurred in the opening
minutes of Friday's practice for the Sprint Unlimited at Daytona International
Speedway, forcing three drivers to use their backup cars for the preseason
race.

With a pack of seven cars coming out of turn four, Matt Kenseth came down the
track and made contact with Kurt Busch, triggering the incident. Busch's car
slammed into the outside wall. Carl Edwards, Mark Martin and Juan Pablo
Montoya were also involved in the incident.

Busch, Edwards and Martin will use their backup cars for Saturday night's 75-
lap event at Daytona, while the teams of Kenseth and Montoya were able to make
repairs to their primary vehicles.

"I didn't see anything," Edwards said of the incident. "I should have been
listening to my spotter, Jason Hedleski, because he said, 'watch 'em, watch
'em' about two seconds before this happened."

Kenseth, a two-time Daytona 500 winner, including a victory in last year's
race, will make his first start in the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing this
weekend.

NASCAR's new Generation-6 race car is making its competition debut in the race
as well. After extensive testing during the offseason, drivers and teams have
been pleased with the car, and NASCAR has high hopes it will increase the
competition. However, there are some unknowns about the Gen-6, particularly in
race conditions.

During last month's testing at Daytona, a multi-car wreck occurred when Marcos
Ambrose spun around in a pack of 18 cars after Dale Earnhardt Jr. was
attempting to bump draft Ambrose on the backstretch. Twelve of the 18 cars
riding in a pack at the time were involved in the accident. Drivers did notice
a significant difference in the designs of the Chevrolet SS, the Ford Fusion
and the Toyota Camry while bump drafting during the Daytona test.

The remainder of the first session and the whole second session of practice
ran incident free. Kevin Harvick led the way in practice 1 with a lap at
197.364 mph, while Denny Hamlin, who is Kenseth's teammate at JGR, was fastest
in practice 2 at 196.053 mph.